yes, i can see perfectly well how faith must look from the outside. i'm surrounded by atheists and agnostics, so i can hardly forget it! but i wasnt surprised to see that churches, for the first time in ages, have had to put on extra carol services. there's a 'stand up and be counted' feeling that Christianity could, given the guts, counter Islam in a way secularism can't seem to bring itself to do. Islamists are given to squealing at the slightest critique of their monumentally mean religion. but things are definitely on the move.

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU! did you hear that sugar rush got an emmy?!Julie, sweetheart, I do NOT belong to that miserable bunch of secularists who are afraid of giving offence to Islam - or Christianity, or any other religion. I see little difference between any of them and am happy to offend the lot. I'm not an atheist, by the way, I'm an anti-theist - a profound loather of all religions, faiths, beliefs and preachings. In my entire life there's only been one Christian I've managed to stay friends with and that's by regarding his faith as a minor disablement, like having a wooden leg.

There now, that's pretty patronsing, isn't it! We should have plenty to jabber about when we finally get our lunch together. Great news about the Emmy for Sugar Rush. xxx

In The News ~ The eppylover's comment: If, by some chance, there is any truth in the "Jesus" myth, this is merely another piece of conjecture that shows how much this legend has been changed and played with over the ages. Much in the way of politics have been applied to the tainted history of that book of fairy tales called "the Bible."

LONDON (Reuters) - British novelist Jeffrey Archer, renowned for penning a string of best-selling thrillers, has written the Gospel according to Judas Iscariot in a bid to throw new light on Christendom's most reviled betrayer.Archer, writing in collaboration with biblical scholar Francis Moloney, argues that Judas Iscariot never hanged himself and was motivated not by money but disillusionment over Jesus' refusal to throw the Romans out of the Jewish homeland.

"It is a gospel, not a short story and not a novel. It is 22,000 words in length," Archer told Reuters in an interview on Sunday announcing the book's worldwide publication on March 22.

"We don't have him dying which is a crucial part of the story," Archer said of Judas who is said to have betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and then hanged himself in shame.

"The Gospel According to Judas" is penned in the hand of his son Benjamin Iscariot, with the authors using Christianity's core, canonical texts as their point of reference.

Archer said 80 percent of the writing was his and 80 percent of the scholarship came from the Australian academic.

"It sounds just like the kind of thing someone's son would do to try and rehabilitate their father's name," said South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu who has recorded an audio version of the book.

Archer is renowned as much for his own colorful life as he is for pacy thrillers like "Honor Among Thieves" and "First Among Equals" that are a staple diet of airport bookshops.

SELF-PUBLICIST

Archer, a millionaire who has sold 125 million copies of his books, was convicted for perjury and perverting the course of justice and jailed in 2001 after lying in a libel trial against a newspaper which said he had sex with a prostitute.

The case -- Archer was released in 2003 to resume writing -- destroyed the political career of the flamboyant author who was once deputy chairman of the opposition Conservative party. A consummate self-publicist, Archer was cagey about giving away too many of the book's conclusions before its publication but said: "Judas did not hang himself."

Archer did not believe Judas was motivated by money.

"Unquestionably he wanted the Messiah to ride into Jerusalem in front of a triumphant army and defeat the Romans. But that was never Christ's purpose as he kept telling his disciples," Archer said. "When he arrives on a donkey, that for Judas is the proof that he isn't the Messiah."

Bracing for protest on publication, Archer said: "When it comes to controversy, what will be fascinating is the United States. This is going to cause an amazing amount of debate." Archer is offering the second Judas gospel to hit the headlines in the past year.

In April, a 1,700-year-old copy of the "Gospel of Judas" was unveiled in Washington. It said Judas acted on Jesus' request in turning him over to the authorities because he was the only disciple in Jesus' inner circle who understood his desire to shed his earthly body.

It is not known who wrote that Judas gospel. The copy unveiled was of a document mentioned critically in the year 180 in a treatise called "Against Heresies," written by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon in what was then Roman Gaul.

It spoke out against those whose views about Jesus differed from those of the mainstream Christian church.

Atheism ~ Agnosticism ~ Religiosity

Quotes from knowledgeable people, backing up the eppylover's opinion that Atheism is, in itself, a Faith ~ because a hardcore disbelief is indeed a belief all by itself.

Bertrand Russell: "Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality."

Umberto Eco: "[O]ne should not have the arrogance to declare that God does not exist." (or does exist)

Thomas Henry Huxley: "It is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty. This is what agnosticism asserts."

Robert G. Ingersoll:"The Agnostic does not simply say, 'I do not know.' He goes another step and says with great emphasis that you do not know. "As a matter of fact, no one knows that God exists and no one knows that God does not exist. To my mind there is no evidence that God exists - that this world is governed by a being of infinite goodness, wisdom and power, but I do not pretend to know."

---eppylover again:Actually, both religiosity and atheism cater to the vast majority of people ~ both are "faiths" (because, after all, a belief in the absence of a god is a "faith," because there is no proof), and each does its part to quell somewhat the normal human terror of the unknown. :)